


spend more time with you

by hippopotamus



Category: SKAM (Norway)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-07 04:33:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14663372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hippopotamus/pseuds/hippopotamus
Summary: isak accidentally freezes time trying to prove even wrong about his ability to reverse it.





	spend more time with you

**Author's Note:**

> [[no relation to the butterfly fic i just like fantasy settings]]

As soon as Isak says the last words of the spell, he knows he’s gone wrong somewhere along the line. 

The world around him freezes, the droplets of rain against his window stop hammering, the normal humming of the fridge stops, every background noise just - ceases. 

The clock in front of him stops ticking.

And, yeah, he did  _ know _ there were risks involved with time spells. It wasn’t like he hadn’t researched them thoroughly before sitting down to attempt one himself - but he researched so thoroughly that he’d sort of convinced himself that nothing could go wrong. 

But making time stop is definitely wrong -  when his intention was to reverse time. N ot for anything serious - he wasn’t intending to go back more than five minutes, to un-smash the glass he just dropped deliberately on the ground next to him (its still smashed though, and the liquid running out of it is unnaturally still). 

It quickly becomes apparent, when he moves to look out of his window, that this room was not the only part of the world affected by his spell. He’s not so egotistical to think that he’s affected the whole world, but he’s definitely stopped as much as he can see out of his window. There are people and cars and animals frozen on the streets below him, and it’s an odd sight.

A quick glance through his book on the art of time magic tells him that he needs more information than he has here. He needs to go to the covenhouse - the common house for modern witches, with a library that has books on every kind of magic in the world - including kinetic magic, love magic (which Isak refuses to go near) and most importantly, time magic.

Tying his shoes without time’s interference is an odd experience. The laces don’t fall to the ground when he lets go of them, and his usual rhythm of how to move his hands is disrupted. It seems like time will only work on him, or things he touches, and there’s no telling how long it will last.

He walks down still streets, passing by frozen people, and if he weren’t so preoccupied by the fact that he’s just screwed up on some universe-altering magic, he would laugh at the comical looks on some of their faces, when they’ve paused mid-word, or mid-stumble. 

It’s only a short walk to the covenhouse - normally Isak would say five minutes, but he’s not sure how much that applies here - but when he arrives, and pushes open the door, he finds that he’s not alone. The sound of breathing is loud in the deathly quiet of a world without time, so although the person is nowhere to be seen, Isak can hear them.

“Hello?” he calls out nervously, and the breathing stops for a second, before he gets a reply.

“Isak?” the reply comes from the room to his left, from which Even appears, a grin spreading over his face. Isak can only imagine he’s happy that there is someone else alive in the world with him - he can’t have had any reasonable explanation for the world pausing.

Isak is quick to explain. “Even, I- I’m so sorry, I fucked up, I was trying to do a time spell and I - it went really wrong, I don’t know how.”

Even’s grin fades with Isak’s words. 

“You used a time spell?” he asks sharply, and the disappointment in his voice is enough to make Isak curl in on himself a little, to shrink smaller and away. “Didn’t we talk about this?”

They did, actually. Just last night Isak had been here, in the kitchen, discussing the moral implications of casting a time spell to undo your mistakes.

“ _ I mean, even if either of us was anywhere near that ability level _ ,” Even had said, immediately activating Isak’s favoured response of wanting to prove him wrong out of spite. Of course Isak is near that ability level. He could cast a time spell in his  _ sleep. _ “ _ We shouldn’t, because it just removes consequences for your actions. It’s not fair on anyone _ .”

Isak had actually - sort of agreed with him on that. But he was determined to prove Even wrong on his ability, first and foremost. Which leads to where they are now.

“I’m sorry,” he says weakly. “I just - you said that neither of us could do it, so I - wanted to prove you wrong. Not that it’s your fault!” he adds hastily, realising that were Even to yell at him because of the implication, he would be within his rights.

Even just raises an eyebrow, unamused. “So is that why I’m still moving?”

The way he says it makes Isak wonder if he had a different theory about it. 

“I mean, I guess it must be, right? But I wasn’t, like, doing it deliberately. I wasn’t thinking about you or anything.” He flushes slightly as he says this, because really, when is he not thinking about Even?

Even nods, all trace of the excitement he had when Isak had first arrived gone.

“So we need to go up to the library, yeah? Figure this out?” His voice is softened now, and he puts a comforting hand on Isak’s shoulder. Isak relaxes into it, thankful that it seems Even isn’t upset anymore.

He follows behind Even up the stairs and into the library, breathing in the familiar smell of old books - only to find it’s barely there. It must be something to do with time.

“What spell were you trying, anyway?” Even asks, voice full of curiosity, along with kindness that Isak doesn’t deserve after his stupidity.

“Just a, uh, rewind spell,” he says it quiet enough that maybe, just maybe, Even might mishear him. No such luck.

“A rewind spell? Isak, that’s-”

“I know, I know,” Isak sighs. “I’m sorry. I just - you said I couldn’t.”

Even is picking books from the shelves, with his back to Isak, but still Isak can tell he’s rolling his eyes. “That’s a weak excuse.” He pauses, and Isak can hear a smile in his next words. “A very Isak excuse.”

Isak huffs, and looks down as Even turns back to him with a book in his hands. 

“This book has a chapter on the side effects of messing with time. Shall we start here?” He sits at the table, and Isak takes the seat next to him, keeping a careful distance between them although their arms rest next to each other on the table. He watches as Even flips to the right chapter in the book and slides it closer to Isak, who starts reading, feeling Even’s eyes on him the whole time, and finding it impossible to focus.

“So there’s - no one else who can move right now?” Even asks. “That you’ve seen, I mean.”

Isak shakes his head.

“And you’re sure you weren’t thinking about me?” His voice takes on a teasing tone.

Isak shakes his head again. “But, I mean, I was doing it to prove you wrong about it, so, maybe I was in some way.” He ducks his head closer to the book as he says it, hoping that Even can’t see his face. Even just hums, then stands.

“I’ll look for some other books,” he says, and Isak nods, not looking up iin case he gives himself away.

When Even sits back down, to Isak’s confusion - and slight disappointment, he sits at a different table, and the way he stretches his arm out in front of him means the book he’s chosen is concealed from Isak’s view. He quickly becomes engrossed in it, giving Isak an opportunity to just look at Even, effectively distracting himself from the question he wants to ask.

“What book is that?” Isak asks, and Even glances up and quickly away again.

“Uh,” he hesitates. “Um, just something about the effect of other spells on time.”

Isak narrows his eyes. “What other spells?”

“I mean,” Even says. “When time stopped I was - i was practicing another spell, or, well, me and Mikael were trying out this other spell, so I’m just checking that it wasn’t - that I didn’t do that one wrong or something.”

“What spell?”

“Uh,” Even gets distracted reading for a moment, and Isak sees right through him.

“Even,” he prompts. “What spell?”

“A… finding spell.”

“To find what?”

“God, you’re nosy,” Even says, and inhales deeply. “A spell to find a soulmate.”

Oh. 

Isak’s heard of those spells, of course, but hardly anyone uses them. Soulmates are regarded as kind of unnecessary, when there are all sorts of factors that come into play, and added to the fact that most people fall in love by choice not through the design of the universe, almost no one uses the spells, unless its to confirm what they are already certain of, or not bothered about. The spell points you to a soulmate in a unique way, usually markers, or some sort of coded map. According to reports, it depends on the person casting it.

Maybe sometimes it points you to your soulmate by freezing time for the two of you.

But that’s a ridiculous idea. The whole freezing time thing was because of Isak’s spell. Nothing to do with Even. Nothing to do with how happy Even had been to see him at first. 

They’re not  _ soulmates _ .

(They could be soulmates. It would explain a lot of things, a lot of his feelings about Even.)

Isak is so lost in thought he doesn’t notice Even’s eyes on him until he looks back up.

“But,” Isak says. “Your spell wouldn’t do this, could it?”

He only realises that there was a hopeful look on Even’s face when it disappears with Isak’s words.

“Yeah,” Even replies. “Yeah, I couldn’t have done this. So, I guess it was you. You found anything in that book?”

“I - no.”

Silence falls over them.

“There has to be something,” Even says eventually. “We can’t be stuck like this forever.”

Isak is too deep in thought to reply, remembering all the rumours he’s learnt about soulmates, all the myths and the stories. Everything that just seemed like a distant dream.

“I don’t know why else you wouldn’t freeze, though,” he says eventually. “I mean, just because I was trying to prove you wrong, doesn’t mean my spell wouldn’t have frozen you too.”

“What are you saying?” Even asks.

Isak shrugs. “Just that you’re too far away over there,” he says, or lets it slip out, really, because he wasn’t planning on saying that.

Even stands and moves to the chair next to Isak that he had occupied before with a half smile. “Ok, how about now?”

“Better,” Isak smiles, looking down. “So, when you cast the spell, was it the exact moment that time froze?”

“Pretty much,” says Even. “I don’t know about to the second, but it was close.”

“Okay,” Isak returns to his thoughts, flicking through the book in front of him. “The side effects of that spell I used, even the ones when the spell goes wrong, they didn’t include this.”

“So it  _ was _ my spell?”

Isak fights the smile threatening to spread across his face at the possibilities of that. “It - I think it might have been a combination? Two spells at once, which, by the way, do you know how unlikely that is?”

Even nods, biting his lip. “Sounds like something soulmates could do.” He says it quietly, almost too quietly, but Isak hears it, and warmth spreads through him.

“Yeah,” he agrees. “It kinda does.”

“So, you’re not - upset?” Even asks. “That we’re, we  _ might  _ be soulmates?”

“Why would I be upset?” Actually, there are many reasons why Isak  _ could _ be upset. But none of them matter, not really. “Are you upset?”

Even shakes his head, then looks away. “It doesn’t answer how we reverse it, though,” he sighs. “It sounds more complicated than I originally thought.”

Isak raises an eyebrow at him. “Does it? I think the solution is pretty obvious, actually.” Even tilts his head in question, and Isak sighs. “Come on. What’s the first thing people say about soulmates?”

Even’s eyebrows flick upwards as he understands what Isak is saying, and there’s breathless wonder in his voice as he replies. “Soulmates kiss.”

Isak nods. “I mean, it’s worth a shot, at least. But if it-”

Even cuts him off with his lips pressing against Isak’s

“Oh,” Isak breathes, pulling back in surprise, but then pushing back forward to reach Even again, to kiss him properly.

He doesn’t get long to marvel in the wonder of how it feels to kiss Even, because a second later, the smell of old books fills the air, and the reality of what’s happening washes over him.

“Even, we-”

“We’re soulmates,” Even smiles as he glances over to the person sitting at the other table, to see them move, and then start at seeing Isak and Even there. “I hoped it would be you,” Even confesses.

It’s a couple of seconds before Isak realises he doesn’t have to fight the grin that wants to spread across his face. 

“Yeah,” he says. “Me too.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> thank u so much for reading   
> love always xxx


End file.
